In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-89253, an image forming apparatus provided with a plurality of sheet receiving trays different in the sheet loading amounts is disclosed, in which one tray can be selected from the plurality of sheet receiving trays by a user as a sheet receiving tray for receiving discharged sheets on which an image was formed.
Further, it is disclosed that the above-described image forming apparatus is provided with means for judging whether or not a number of the output sheets designated by the user exceeds a prescribed value, and in case that the number of the output sheets exceeds the prescribed value, the image formed sheets are discharged to the sheet receiving tray set by the user. That is, if the user sets a sheet receiving tray with the more sheet loading amount as the discharge destination, in case that the number of the output sheets are many (exceeds the prescribed value), it becomes possible to discharge the sheets to the sheet receiving tray suitable for the discharge (a sheet receiving tray with the more sheet loading amount).
In such an image forming apparatus as this, the discharge destination for the image formed sheets is selected only in consideration of the difference between the sheet loading amounts of the sheet receiving trays. However, in the image forming apparatus provided with a plurality of sheet receiving trays, one case exists where the legibilities of the trays from the user of the image forming apparatus are different because the places in which the trays are arranged are different, and another case and so on where first copy times are different because the lengths of the sheet conveying paths from an image forming portion to the sheet receiving trays are different.
In the image forming apparatus provided with a plurality of sheet receiving trays as these, in case that each of the sheet receiving trays has a different characteristic as described above, it is desirable to select the most suitable sheet discharge destination for the user of the image forming apparatus in consideration of these characteristics. However, any image forming apparatus has never existed in which such a sheet discharge destination selection is applied.